The Best Practicable Constitution (Polity) and Aristotle's Justification of This Constitution Over His Real Preference for Aristocracy

Essay from the year 2009 in the subject Politics - Political Theory and the History of Ideas Journal, grade: 1.3, Royal Holloway, University of London, language: English, abstract: Aristotle defends his claim of polity as the ideal constitution by arguments taken from his ethical thoughts, namely his theories of mean, virtue and equality. The first part of the essay will therefore discuss these ethical concepts before in the second part Aristotle's arguments leading to his first 'ideal' constitution - aristocracy - will be laid down. Discussing several problems of an aristocracy in the third part, the essay will describe Aristotle's real preference for polity as a 'mixed' and 'middle' constitution in the fourth part. The last chapter is dedicated to reflect Aristotle's discussion shortly in today's light and present some points of critique.